Cancer Center Announces Expansion

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Original Title:UC Davis Cancer Center Announces Expansion Plans

UC Davis Cancer Center will nearly double thanks to a $35 million expansion project that will expand treatment, research, patient education and space for faculty.

The expansion also means the pediatric cancer program, which is currently housed a quarter of a mile away, will move to the main cancer center. The plan calls for adding 100,000 square feet to the existing cancer center.

This morning Robin Rafael of Roseville, who lost her young son to cancer in 1998, made a $50,000 donation in honor of her son Keaton who died of cancer at the age of 5. "This is a day that cancer cannot claim," Rafael said. "Today is the day about the future, and the hope, and clinical expansion, and what we are going to do to combat childhood cancer with our research."

The center needs to raise another $35 million before ground can be broken on the expansion. U.C. Davis hopes to do that over the next couple of years. The university will shoulder the biggest share of the cost, and private donors have already added more than $6 million.

The cancer center currently treats 9,000 patients a year, but the number of patients grows by 6 percent every year as the population of Northern California grows and becomes older.

(This story was provided by News10 KXTV Sacramento.)

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